Woo. What a game.
Those who decided to go to bed early Thursday night, and missed out on one of the greatest games in playoff history, might be regretting that decision after missing what transpired on the diamond between the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.
In one of the most unexplainable, unbelievable, games in a long time, the Cardinals fought back and earned a 10-9 victory, and extended the World Series to a decisive Game 7 that will take place Friday night. It will be the first time baseball will witness a Game 7 since the Angels and Giants faced off in 2002.
Like they haven’t had their will tested enough this season, the Cardinals had to fight back twice down two runs, with two outs, and two strikes before David Freese sent a ball flying into the air and landing innocently over the center field wall in the bottom of the 11th inning.
Freese, the hometown kid, pumped his fist while rounding first base and was mugged by his teammates at home plate. While the raucous home crowd celebrated in the stands, Freese had his jersey torn off by his teammates, who probably did the third-baseman a favor after an exhausting 4-hour, 33-minute affair.
“I’m out of breath. I just got beat up by 30 guys,” Freese said, according to stltoday.com. “It wasn’t always pretty but this was all about getting to tomorrow.”
He was right—it wasn’t pretty.
Early in the game it looked like the Cardinals were going to give the championship away after committing three errors—one by Freese, who couldn’t control a routine pop up to third base.
The sloppy play contributed to the Rangers taking a 7-4 lead going into the eight inning. And that’s when things got crazy.
The Cardinals Allen Craig homered to left field cutting the lead to 7-5, giving St. Louis a glimmer of hope.
In the ninth, with two runners on, and down to two outs and two strikes, David Freese lined a triple over the head of Nelson Cruz in right field which tied the game at 7.
The game went into extra innings, and in the top of the 10th, Rangers center fielder Josh Hamilton, who has played with a groin injury for the entire series, hit a two-run home run to right field, giving the Rangers a 9-7 lead.
Then came another Cardinals rally. After Daniel Descalso scored on a ground out, Lance Berkman lined a single to Hamilton, who along with the rest of the outfield was playing no-doubles defense. With that hit, the Cards tied the game—again.
After shutting down the Rangers in the top of the 11th inning, Freese came to the plate and homered to center field to end the game.
Now, baseball fans will get what they wanted—a Game 7 for all the marbles.
